When the Bears and the Cardinals met in the 26th Big Game on November 20, 1920, the stakes were enormous. With the teams tied atop the Pacific Coast Conference, the winner would win the championship. A win would almost certainly mean a first trip to Pasadena on New Years Day for California. For Stanford, aContinue reading “Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Eight – The Big Game”
Category Archives: Golden Bears
The Year USC Caused Stanford to Play a Home Game in Berkeley
No, I am not making this up. In 1924, the actions of the University of Southern California resulted in the Stanford football team playing a home game at California Memorial Stadium. Against Utah. There were allegations of players being paid, a fired coach, canceled games, secret deals, a school suspended from the conference, recriminations, counter-recriminations,Continue reading “The Year USC Caused Stanford to Play a Home Game in Berkeley”
Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Seven – California vs. Washington State College
As the California Golden Bears neared the end of the 1920 football season, they remained the odds-on favorite to win the Pacific Coast Conference championship. After a close road win over the well-regarded Oregon Aggies in Corvallis, the prognosticators uniformly proclaimed that the winner of the battle between California and Washington State on November 6Continue reading “Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Seven – California vs. Washington State College”
Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Six – California vs. Oregon Agricultural College
By the last weekend of October in 1920, the University of California Golden Bears were riding high. They had soundly beaten the Olympic Club, the Mare Island Marines, St. Mary’s, Nevada and Utah, outscoring those teams by a combined total of 378-7. But now, at last, they were entering Pacific Coast Conference Play. They wereContinue reading “Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Six – California vs. Oregon Agricultural College”
Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Five – California vs. Utah
By late October 1920, the California Golden Bears were the established favorite to win the Pacific Coast Conference championship and play in the Rose Bowl – despite the fact that they had yet to play a conference game. After beating the semi-pro Olympic Club in an almost competitive game in September, the Bears had spentContinue reading “Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Five – California vs. Utah”
Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Four – California vs. Nevada
Coach Andy Smith and his California Varsity squad could have been excused if they had approached the fourth game of the 1920 season, against Nevada, with considerable satisfaction. They had swept through the first three games in extraordinary fashion, first a 21-0 win over the Olympic Club, then an 88-0 beat down of the MareContinue reading “Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Four – California vs. Nevada”
Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Three – California vs. St. Mary’s
Eighteen touchdowns scored in a single game is a lot. Eighteen touchdowns scored by one team in a single game is…almost inconceivable. Throw in a safety (and subtract one missed extra point) and you have the 127-0 score by which Andy Smith’s boys triumphed over St. Mary’s in their third game of the 1920 season.Continue reading “Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Three – California vs. St. Mary’s”
Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Two – California vs. The Mare Island Marines
Game postponed by an epidemic? Or maybe canceled? A desperate scramble to find a substitute? Minimal chance to prepare? Why does all this seem familiar? But never fear, Cal fans. The second game of the “Wonder Team’s” amazing 1920 season turned out to be a rousing success for the Golden Bears, and provided the firstContinue reading “Cal’s Wonder Team Centennial: Game Two – California vs. The Mare Island Marines”
The World’s First Women’s College Basketball Team
It is not widely known that it was the University of California, Berkeley, which gave the world the very first women’s college basketball team. The Cal women became the first women’s team to play a basketball game as the representatives of their school the fall of 1892, less than a year after the game ofContinue reading “The World’s First Women’s College Basketball Team”
Cal Bears History 